Mayflower residents to Tim Griffin: "We need help" with oil-related illnesses

[Hestia]

Mayflower residents to Tim Griffin: "We need help" with oil-related illnesses
Posted by Sam Eifling on Mon, Aug 26, 2013 at 5:40 PM

Griffin promised to call the governor after meeting with constituents in the parking lot of Stroud's Country Diner in Mayflower earlier in the day. There, several residents who have complained of persistent health problems since spill urged the Republican congressman to help them get better assessment and treatment.

"We have all been sick," said Linda Lynch, whose home is some 300 yards from the rupture site. "I feel like we're all like dogs chasing our tails around here. And we are sick of it. ... We need help."

Griffin told her he'd call the governor and convey their wishes. "I'll do whatever," Griffin says. "I know [the governor] cares. And he has some resources with the department of health that my office does not have."

Beebe's spokesman Matt DeCample confirmed later in the afternoon that Griffin called and spoke with the governor's chief of staff, Morril Harriman, about exploring a further response from the health department. DeCample said the governor's office would be discussing the matter with the health department.

Residents' suggestions to Griffin included a mobile clinic where they could see a specialist in chemical exposure-related illnesses, and an independent community health assessment to determine how widely people in Mayflower were affected by the spill, in which 210,000 gallons of heavy crude burst out of ExxonMobil's Pegasus pipeline.

more at link:
http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2013/08/26/mayflower-residents-to-tim-griffin-we-need-help-with-oil-related-illnesses


Arkansas Times had a comprehensive report about the Mayflower spill and it was surprising in that there is a lot information that no one would hear about unless they live in Mayflower. Exxon has controlled everything and I do hope that is a wake up call about a corporation causing a problem then forcing themselves into clean up, if you want to call it that.

This is the article: The Forgotten - http://www.arktimes.com/arkansas/the-forgotten-mayflower-residents/Content?oid=3007639

In the week after an oil spill strangled the air in Ann Jarrell's neighborhood, tens of thousands of her bees either died or went mad.

Jarrell has kept bees in her backyard since she moved to Mayflower almost two years ago. Living in the hamlet between Little Rock and Conway has afforded her the chance to be close to her daughter, Jennifer. Behind her three-bedroom brick home, at the corner of her small fenced-in yard, she tended to two beehives. Apiarists select and breed passive bees, and Jarrell's were no different, until they were.

More at link...